ALBANY, N.Y. -- What was supposed to be an upbeat, happy practice for the players on their way out of here took a somewhat disappointing turn early when CB Aaron Ross went down after aggravating a hamstring injury that kept him out for the majority of training camp.

On the second play of team drills, Ross was covering WR Steve Smith on a deep ball from QB Eli Manning. As the ball was in the air, Ross went down hard and grabbed the back of his left thigh. He threw his helmet off and yelled in frustration.

Ross limped off, received treatment from the trainers and then stood and watched the rest of practice from the sideline.

"The poor kid cannot get beyond that," coach Tom Coughlin said of Ross' injury. "He starts working his way back and he obviously made a sudden move to try to catch up to the receiver that was going by. It's very frustrating because he has not had a lot of time on the field."

Coughlin said he won't know the severity of this latest tweak, but he indicated the initial injury wasn't as bad as the torn hamstring suffered by DT Chris Canty. Still, it's worse than the "minor strains" Coughlin said Ross has had over the past couple of years.

That puts this injury somewhere between mild strain and a tear. We'll call it a severe strain. Sound good?

"It (hamstring) felt like someone shot me. It was cramping in three different places," said Ross. "Hopefully, it won't take more than 18 days. The first game is in 19 days."

INJURIES

Canty was back after going to New York for tests and treatment on his hamstring. He did not practice. Coughlin said Canty underwent a procedure to help the healing process. Jenny Vrentas has the scoop on that and will post it here a bit later.

LB Antonio Pierce (foot) is still out despite his saying Monday he feels "great." LB Danny Clark (chin) was out again as well.

The good news on the injury front was S Kenny Phillips (knee) appeared to practice fully after leaving early Monday.

OL Orrin Thompson (thigh) did not practice.

LB Michael Boley (hip/PUP) continues to do light work on the side.

THE STARTERS

The Giants emptied their bag of deep balls in this practice. I mean, they were chucking them all over the place. Manning's best ball of the session was when he found WR Domenik Hixon deep past CB Corey Webster on a post.

DT Barry Cofield had a good practice. He was in the backfield for a sack and then a stop on RB Brandon Jacobs.

Phillips made a good play to knock away a ball from QB David Carr.

DE Justin Tuck forced Manning to spike a ball into the dirt when he blew up a screen by pushing the blocker into the backfield.

THE BACKUPS

CB Terrell Thomas made a great one-handed grab of a pass from Manning that went over Smith's head. But Thomas was out of bounds, so no INT. He probably went for the one-handed catch because he knew he was going to come down OB.

Carr hit TE Darcy Johnson up the seam past LB Jonathan Goff.

Tremendous one-handed catch by TE Michael Matthews while leaping and falling backward. That's his second one-handed grab in as many days.

Good job of CB Kevin Dockery of working with DE Maurice Evans on a blitz. Dockery waited for Evans to cut outside then followed his right hip into the hole. He came clean for a sack.

QB Andre' Woodson had WR Sinorice Moss up the middle past Dockery, but Moss pulled up early and bailed on his route. The ball fell incomplete.

Coughlin told one of the members of the backup offensive line he was like a "turnstile." That's not a good characterization.

Good route by WR Mario Manningham on an out. But what else is new? The guy does run great routes.

WR Derek Hagan made a very good catch with Thomas on his back for a first down in two-minute drills. Hagan got up a bit lame and was flexing his right leg. On the next play, Carr tried to hit Hagan on a comeback. Hagan didn't come out of his break as well as he usually does, which means he was probably hurting. Thomas made a break on the ball and knocked it away.

THE YOUNG GUYS

WR Hakeem Nicks appeared ready to build off Monday's practice, but had a deep ball go right off his hands. Carr later laid a ball on his fingertips that he couldn't grab. Coughlin yelled, "Catch the ball!" But Nicks went right by me, so I could see that would have been a tough grab to make. Not a "drop" by any means.

Nicks bounced back late in practice, though. He grabbed a ball I didn't think he had a prayer of catching. It was a deep go up the right side past S C.C. Brown.

QB Rhett Bomar went deep for WR Ramses Barden on a post up the middle of the field. S Sha'reff Rashad appeared to be in good position, but he made the mistake of spinning around. Once he did that, he was fried. By the time he located the ball and got his bearings again, Barden was in much better position. That's a matchup Rashad can't possibly win. And he didn't.

TE Travis Beckum had a handful of grabs Tuesday. His best one was a ball up the left seam from Bomar.

And finally, the players said goodbye to Albany -- each in their own way. LB Zak DeOssie reenacted the big scene from "Braveheart" by yelling, "Freeeeeeedom!!!" LG Rich Seubert sang "Leavin' ... in my Yukon." And the fans applauded the players as they walked off.

Still no word on whether the Giants will be back here. Team president and CEO John Mara smiled and said, "I don't know. I don't know," as soon as he walked by reporters. Coughlin said he wouldn't get into the "politics" of the situation, but he did say there are a couple of ways to approach training camp and that he did it both at home and away during his time with the Jaguars. He said there are positives and negatives for both.